Note on the statistical emergency in Argentina

On 7 January 2016, the government of Argentina declared a state of emergency in the national statistical system. The Decree 55/2016 states that the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INDEC) suffers an anomalous situation in its internal organisation that hinders the production of sufficient and reliable statistical information related to consumer prices, gross domestic product, and trade, amongst others. As a result, INDEC temporarily suspended the publication of certain official statistics under its responsibility, pending re-organisation, which is still undergoing at the time of writing this report. INDEC started to publish inflation rates again in June 2016, labour market indicators in August 2016 as well as poverty data in September 2016. In light of this statistical context, caution is needed in the use of macroeconomic indicators.